A network administrator is a person responsible for the maintenance of the hardware and software systems that define a computer network. Among other tasks, a network administrator monitors network usage or traffic. The term “traffic” is commonly used to refer to network communications over a network link. Traffic can be measured in units of data per unit of time, such as bits per second, frames per second, etc. Each traffic flow through a network can be characterized by such a measurement.
A wireless network is a computer network that allows a wireless network device to communicate with or access a computer network via a radio communication link. For a number of years, the most common type of wireless network has been that which is commonly referred to as “WiFi” or “802.11,” the latter term in reference to the IEEE 802.11 set of standards that govern such networks. Such an 802.11 network comprises one or more access points (APs) that are each connected by a wired connection with a router or similar networking device. A client device, such as a portable computer, smartphone, etc., can communicate by radio communication link, i.e., wirelessly, with the AP. The router or other such networking device allows the client device to communicate with or access a computer network. It is common for the networking device to provide the client device with a connection to the Internet.
A network administrator may desire to monitor the usage of one or more wireless APs. For example, a network administrator may desire to determine which of several APs that are connected by wired connections with the router uses the most bandwidth. As each wired connection can communicate one traffic flow between an AP and the router, it is a straightforward matter to measure each traffic flow.
A wireless mesh network is a digital communications network comprising APs organized in a mesh topology, where each AP can communicate via radio communication links in a peer-to-peer manner with other such APs in the network. Each AP is configured to be capable of receiving a communication from another (peer) AP and forwarding or relaying the message to still another (peer) AP. The communication reaches its ultimate destination via one or more such relays or “hops” as they are commonly referred to in the art. In a client-server computing system, the source and destination of a communication is generally a client device or a server device. Wireless mesh networks can employ radio technology and protocols that are similar to those employed in non-mesh wireless networks, such as those governed by IEEE 802.11. A set of standards known as IEEE 802.11s relates more specifically to wireless mesh networks and is an extension of the IEEE 802.11 set of standards.
A subset of the wireless mesh APs in a network may also be wireless mesh portal APs. A wireless mesh portal AP not only can communicate via wireless communication links with peers in the same manner as other wireless mesh APs in the network but also can communicate via wired connections with network controllers or gateways to other networks, such as the Internet. A first wireless mesh AP can be referred to as an “uplink” of a second wireless mesh AP if the first wireless mesh AP can receive wireless traffic from the second wireless mesh AP directly, with no intermediate hops. In a wireless mesh network having a tree structure, each wireless mesh AP has at most one uplink.
Monitoring traffic flow in a wireless mesh network in a meaningful way can present challenges. For example, in a wireless mesh network, bandwidth of a traffic flow is halved for each hop. It would be desirable to provide a system and method that addresses such challenges.